Stakeholder Mapping

What Is Stakeholder Mapping?
Stakeholder mapping is a collaborative process of research, debate, and discussion that draws from
multiple perspectives to determine a key list of stakeholders across the entire stakeholder spectrum.
Mapping can be broken down into four phases:
1. Identifying: listing relevant groups, organizations, and people
2. Analyzing: understanding stakeholder perspectives and interests
3. Mapping: visualizing relationships to objectives and other stakeholders
4. Prioritizing: ranking stakeholder relevance and identifying issues
The process of stakeholder mapping is as important as the result, and the quality of the process
depends heavily on the knowledge of the people participating. Action: Gather a cross-functional
group of internal participants to engage in this process. Identify sources external to the company
who may have important knowledge about or perspective on the issues, and reach out to these
sources for input and participation. Finally, identify a resource who can facilitate your work through
the following activities. Capture all your work in writing to help with future steps.
1.1 IDENTIFYING
The first step in the mapping process is to understand that there is no magic list of stakeholders. The
final list will depend on your business, its impacts, and your current engagement objectivesas a
result it should not remain static. This list will change as the environment around you evolves and as
stakeholders themselves make decisions or change their opinions.
Action: Brainstorm a list of stakeholders without screening, including everyone who has an interest
in your objectives today and who may have one tomorrow. Where possible, identify individuals. Use
the following list to help you brainstorm:
ders, agents, analysts, and ratings agencies)

and dependents)
rs, industry associations, industry opinion leaders,
and media)

associations, schools, community organizations, and special interest groups)
onhuman species, future generations, scientists,
ecologists, spiritual communities, advocates, and NGOs)

leaders)
-based organizations, and labor unions)
Here are some additional considerations to help you brainstorm:
activities. What are the objectives of these activities? What stakeholders communicate regularly
with your company? What groups do they cover well? Where can you reach beyond this existing
comfort zone to engage with lesser-known stakeholders?
chnologies, new
customers, and new impending regulations. Depending on your objectives, the relevant stakeholders
you need to engage with may not play the usual sustainability roles but may instead serve other
functions relevant to your business.
rse: Make sure to include a rich diversity of stakeholder expertise, geography, and tactics
from across the spectrum. This is an opportunity to reach out and mix the old with the new,
including individuals from each of the following stakeholder categories: influencers, collaborators,
advocators, and implementation partners.
reach lesser-known
stakeholder groups. Canvas blogs, forums, networking, reviews, and news sites to discover
stakeholders relevant to your business and to learn about their interest in your activities.
aware: People have a tendency to focus on formal authorities in the mapping process, but the
loudest voices or heaviest campaigners are not necessarily your key stakeholders. Step back and add
silent members to your list because they may have a hidden wealth of expertise.
1.2 ANALYZING
Once you have identified a list of stakeholders, it is useful to do further analysis to better understand
their relevance and the perspective they offer, to understand their relationship to the issue(s) and
each other, and to prioritize based on their relative usefulness for this engagement. BSR has
developed a list of criteria to help you analyze each identified stakeholder:
Contribution (value): Does the stakeholder have information, counsel, or expertise on the issue
that could be helpful to the company?
Legitimacy: How legitimate is the stakeholders claim for engagement?
Willingness to engage: How willing is the stakeholder to engage?
Influence: How much influence does the stakeholder have? (You will need to clarify who they
influence, e.g., other companies, NGOs, consumers, investors, etc.)
Necessity of involvement: Is this someone who could derail or delegitimize the process if they were
not included in the engagement?
Action: Use these five criteria to create and populate a chart with short descriptions of how
stakeholders fulfill them. Assign values (low, medium, or high) to these stakeholders. This first data
set will help you decide which stakeholders to engage. See example that follows.
1.3 MAPPING
Mapping stakeholders is a visual exercise and analysis tool that you can use to further determine
which stakeholders are most useful to engage with. Mapping allows you to see where stakeholders
stand when evaluated by the same key criteria and compared to each other and helps you visualize
the often complex interplay of issues and relationships created in the criteria chart above.
Action: Draw a mapping as follows to identify key stakeholders.
1. Draw a quadrant using two axes labeled Low to High.
2. Add Expertise, Willingness, and Value to the criteria chart, as above.
3. Assign Expertise to the Y-axis and Willingness to the X-axis
4. Discuss and debate where each stakeholder falls.
5. Plot the stakeholders on the grid.
6. Use small, medium, and large circle sizes to denote their Value.
7. To illustrate relationships, use arrows to depict Influence.
Consider quadrants, circle size, and influence arrows when prioritizing.
Sample Mapping
Expertise Willingness Value
Quadrant Tactics
(Tactics discussed further in Step 3: Preparation)BSR | Stakeholder Mapping 4
Note: This is just an illustrative mapping example, and your approach may vary depending on your
needs: You may need to use more or less criteria in Analysis depending on the mix of your
stakeholder list; more ambitious objectives may require a more strategic, detailed Mapping; and
your process may be influenced by outsidevariables such as tools and frameworks already in place at
your company. Look closely at your needs and decide whether this example will work for you as is.
1.4 PRIORITIZING STAKEHOLDERS AND IDENTIFYING ISSUES
It is not practical and usually not necessary to engage with all stakeholder groups with the same
level of intensity all of the time. Being strategic and clear about whom you are engaging with and
why, before jumping in, can help save both time and money.
Action: Look closely at stakeholder issues and decide whether they are material to your engagement
objectives, asking yourself the following questions:
Combined with your criteria chart and mapping, use issue materiality to rank your stakeholders into
a prioritized engagement list. You should now have captured the most relevant issues and the most
relevant stakeholders.

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What Is Stakeholder Mapping?

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